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■ QUOTABLE
4 • The Red and Black • Tuesday, April 3, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Established IH93—Incorporated I9S0
An independent student newspaper not a/Jiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Hogai Nassery/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Rape threat
Considering the prevalence of violence against
women today, the recent rape of a University student
should come as no surprise. Does this mean that it
should be accepted as 20th century reality? Absolutely
not. There is no reason that more than half the citizens
of a nation that can put satellites in orbit should live in
fear.
The women on this campus should be alert to the
risks they run every time they venture out alone at
night, make an appointment to meet a stranger or sleep
with a window open. During the spring it’s tempting to
walk alone around campus, oblivious to the increase in
crime that occurs in hot weather. Take precautions
such as calling the the University escort van late at
night, although it only runs until 1 a.m. and only on
week nights. This is inadequate, and insufficient
funding for this program shows the administration’s
lack of concern for student safety.
University officials should adopt an aggressive
approach in dealing with rape on campus. This doesn’t
just mean arresting the assailant. It means keeping
women informed about reports of rape and keeping
them posted on developments. When University police
remain close-mouthed, students are forced to rely on
rumors for information, which can be much scarier
than knowing the facts.
Perhaps this tragedy will draw attention to the
outrageous violations of a woman’s personal safety that
occur every day, and usually go unreported. Hopefully
it will spur women on campus to become more
conscious of the need for caution in their daily lives.
Ideally, it will draw volunteers to the Athens Rape
Crisis Line, which is in desperate need of support. The
Crisis line number is 353-1912. Call for help or to
volunteer your services.
This crime illustrates the injustice that forces
women to fear activities that men take for granted.
Spring into action
Ah, spring. The best quarter of the academic year.
Outdoor music festivals, the big bike race, frisbee on
North Campus and picnics at Lake Herrick make
school a whole lot easier to deal with. But as carefree as
eveiyone feels when the sun comes out, spring brings a
lot of responsibilities that begin right now.
The University has hired a director for the newly
created Department of Minority Services, Leslie Bates.
His biggest challenge is to bridge the gap between the
administration and the needs of black students after
several years of neglect. As the first director, Bates will
set precedents for how that department will be run. In
doing so, he should make every effort to get input from
all minority students, not just blacks.
Earth Day is this month and several students,
including members of Students for Environmental
Awareness and the Environmental Health Science
Club, are spending a lot of time planning and raising
money for the event. Volunteers are always needed to
distribute fliers, sell T-shirts and get the word out that
it’s everyone’s responsibility to take care of Mother
Earth. If you care about the quality of the air you
breathe as you picnic by the lake, or the water you
drink while lying by the pool, get involved with Earth
Day and preserve the green of springtime.
Graduation isn’t far away and it’s about time to
pick a commencement speaker. This year, get a well-
known, prestigious speaker who has made a difference
in the world and has something of value to say. It’s
embarrassing when other schools in the state get
people like Desmond Tutu and we get a wealthy
alumnus. For thousands of students and twice as many
proud parents, graduation is the culmination of four
long, hard years.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
New* Editor Jennifer Rampey
Sport* Editor Trevor Padgcn
Entart*Inmart Editor: Margaret Weston
Aaeodat* Haw* Editor*: Chris Gnmes. Jennifer
Wilkin
Front Pag* Copy Editor David Johnston
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Schrrsdt. Joanna Van Der Wai
DC A Today, Wlr* Editor: Robert Anti*
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Chief Photographer Poter Frey
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Der* McLeod. Mike McLeod. Stephanie Snath.
Sandra Stephens. J.D. Squillant*. Robert Todd
Sport a Wrttar: Chns Lancettc
Special Section*/ Trend* Edffer: Cara May
Assistant Special Section*/Trend a Editor:
Gloria Rowbotham
Editorial Aaaistaat: Pamela Warran
Cartoonist: Mike Moreu
ADVERTISING: 543-1791
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•'I believe our alma mater Is an ancient piece of University heri
tage that should not be tampered with.
— Swann Seller Brannon, Alumni Society second vice presi
dent, on the proposed alma mater change
Capital punishment is still ineffective
On July 11, 1988 Julie Love was taken on the
last ride of her life. She was raped, beaten with
a sawed-ofTshotgun, and almost strangled with
a wire coat hanger. She was killed by a shot to
the head, which shattered her skull into 22
fragments. Her murderer, Emanuel Hammond,
sold the murder weapon two months later, for
$20 and five rocks of crack cocaine.
Two months earlier Hammond allegedly ab
ducted another woman, robbed and raped her,
cut her throat and left her for dead in tne same
area where Ms. Love’s skeletal remains were
later found. The first woman lived to testify at
Hammond’s trial for Ms. Love’s murder. De
spite the heinous nature of his crimes, Ham
mond should not be murdered, in return, by the
state.
There is no defending Hammond, and I
cannot bring myself to plead for mercy in his
case. His crimes disgust and ofTend me, but I
am not prepared to concede that the state
should carry our his murder as retribution.
Hammond himself is evidence that the death
penalty has failed os a deterrent. With an ar
rest record of assaults, robberies and ropes
dating back to his early teens, Hammond grew
up during a time when capital punishment had
been reinstated and executions were common
and well publicized, yet Hammond was not de
terred; not in the least. A cruise through any
urban area of any city will reveal legions of
young men who are well on their way to be
coming Emanuel Hammonds. They have seen
the options for their futures narrowed by the in
festation of drugs into their communities and
the collapse of public school systems, and they
expect to live short and violent lives. Ham-
Terrance
Heath
mond's execution will not be their deterrent; his
name will be nothing more than a name in a
headline that most of them cannot read. Ham
mond’s execution will mean nothing to them,
not even when one of them steps into Ham
mond’s place.
To execute Hammond will mean perpetu
ating a system that is by nature feral, arbitrary
and discriminatory. The death penalty is oflen
meted out disproportionately accoring to race.
Studies have shown that those who kill whites
ore 11 times more likely to receive a death sen
tence than those who lull black victims. Nor is
there any way to insure that those who are ac
tually innocent will not be sentenced to capital
punishment and executed. Our legal system is
not infallible; there have been incidents of in-
nnocent people taking up residence on death
row and even being executed. Capital punish
ment is irrevocable, even when the executed
are innocent of any crime; we cannot call back
the wrongfully executed, but we can at least re
lease the wrongfully imprisoned.
Our legal system is in need of a provision for
a sentence of life imprisonment without parole,
to insure that the innocent are not executed,
and to make sure that those who are truly dan
gerous are never again free to roam among the
citzenry. Under no circumstances should
someone as violent as Hammond ever be al
lowed the possibility of release. Perhaps he is
deserving of death, but there is no single
human being who possesses the moral au
thority to decide whether he should live or die.
Capital punishment instills and reinforces a
certain savagery in our society, relfected in the
leering faces that invariably turn out to cheer
and celebrate most executions. We forget that
the person in the electric chair (whatever his or
her crimes) is still a human being, and as we
scream and yell for blood and wave signs that
read "Fry ’em!’’ and “Turn up the juice!” we are
not one whit superior to the ones we so enthu-
siasticaly murder in the name of the state. The
death penalty increases our desensitization ns
well as our capacity for violence as a socitey,
and transforms us into the same kind of crea
tures we so gleefully destroy. Capital punish
ment brutalizes us individually and ns a
society.
Pertinps if my sister, or mother, or a close
friend had been Hammond’s victim, I would feel
differently. I might find within myself a desire
to see his blood flow, but there is nothing to be
gained from Hammond’s execution except a
short-lived, debasing feeling of vengeance. Cap
ital punishment keeps alive the sentiment of
“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” and
causes us to forget that “an eye for an eye” ulti
mately leaves everybody blind.
Terrance Heath is a junior English major.
There is one unifying God
■ FORUM
□ The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and prints them in the Forum
column as space permits. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and li
belous material. Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must include the name,
address and daytime telephone number of the writer. Please include student classifi
cation and major other appropriate identification. Names can be omitted with a valid
reason upon request. Letters can be sent by U.S. mail or brought in person to The Red
and Black s offices at 123 N. Jackon St.. Athens. Ga.
I was relieved to find Steven
Sacco lighting a candle in his
column “Hiding from the dark be
hind religion.” As college students
maturing into adults, we despara-
tely attempt to remove our own
shroud ana seek spirituality, yet
we are continuously dividing
rather than uniting under God by
dogmatically insisting on one right
(rite) way to find Him — our way. I
refuse to believe there are innu
merable ‘Gods’ dictating specific
standards of worship conduct for
Their’ particular followings. We
ask ourselves, “Should we worship
on Saturday or Sunday?” “Was
Jesus the Messiah, a prophet or
existing at all?” Not finding the
“right” answers could be eternally
fatal. Surely God (singular) cannot
be so exclusive.
We, who seek God and find His
love in and around us, are united
in the very joy of that bond. This
brotherhood should not be dis
torted or marred by the petty par
ticulars of various religions. God
cannot possibly smile upon our dis
sension.
Kathryn Bolles
freshman, English
Sacco hypocritical
While Steven Sacco’s column
about religion has some coherent
arguments, he seems to undermine
his claim that people who think
they have the absolute truth do
not. By asserting his idea of the
function of religion, he establishes
a view of religion for himself, just
as those who base their religion
upon the Bible or other religious
texts do. He may think that the
function of religion is one thing,
while others may think differently.
If one is to claim that maintaining
faith in an absolute is wrong, then
he should not replace that faith
with his own absolute.
Philip Webb
sophomore, undecided
Long live my lungs
In response to Lloyd Carver’s
sentiment expressed with regard
to the elimination of smoking in
the library student lounge, I would
like to say that this action rep
resents a positive step in the pro
tection of basic individual human
rights; in particular, the right to
breathe.
Carver implies that the Student
Association is infringing on
smokers’ rights by banning ciga
rette smoking in the lounge. The
argument, put forth by smokers,
has an inherent flaw in it. Our
system guarantees us the right
(supposedly) to do what we want.
However, the point missed by
smokers is that the right carries
with it the responsibility not to in
fringe on others.
I personally would be glad if I
could get a Coke from the main li
brary lounge without decreasing
my life expectancy by two weeks.
Long live my lungs!
Clay Jones
freshman, political science
N0RML is a threat
“NORML,” they call themselves,
as if the inference of normality
were justification. They defile the
American flag by replacing the
symbolic representation of the 50
states of our great union with the
leaf of a plant that can be used to
sew clothes, make paper, and, oh
yeah, turn your frontal lobe into a
reasonable facsimile of oatmeal.
They talk of “rights" and “liberties”
with the “if it feels good, do it” nar
cissism of a generation so hung up
on cheap thrills and so frightened
of reality that their reading of the
U.S. Constitution seems to include
a fundamental right to reduce
one’s mind and body to the most
degenerate state. They look at a
crowd of 125 people and call them
selves “the largest student organi
zation on campus,” despite the fact
that the College Republicans, for
instance, have signed up over 600
members this year. They bring
their four-year-old daughters to
pot-legalization rallies... hoping
not merely to destroy their own
lives, but their children’s lives as
well.
For the record, the English re
cently dabbled in the immoral
business of drug legalization. They
succeeded only in quadrupling
their number of addicts, ana did
not put so much as a single dealer
out of business. I don’t care how
many tie-dyed hemp-fiber t-shirts
NORML turns out, they’re not
about “freedoms” and “causes;”
they’re about the cheapening of
human life and the erosion of our
society.
Kyle King
senior, political science
Better causes for rally
I think that all of the emphasis
put on the legalization of pot has a
definite ironic sound to it. I went to
the rally, looked around, and
thought about how disillusioned
the people in this world are.
The world is full of problems:
poverty, homelessness, child mo
lestation and abuse, environ
mental damage, and apathy. Yet
people who try to support these im
portant causes are only able to at
tract a small gathering of people to
help them. However judging from
the number of people who snowed
up at at the NORML rally in
March, pot legalization is of the ut
most urgency.
I question the fact that college
students are more concerned and
willing to spend time on a rela
tively minor issue like pot legaliza
tion rather than worrying about
the people who die every day be
cause they cannot afford to buy
food. I think that this country’s
youth needs to get its priorities in
order.
The whole image of a pot smoker
is a fashionable one. When I looked
around the Tate Center at the
rally, I saw 200 debutantes in tie-
dyes. If the Rape Crisis Center had
a rally, everyone would have to
wear blood stained t-shirts; be
cause the sartorial choice would
not be nearly as attractive as that
of the NORML rally and few people
would show up.
I don’t judge the cause of pot le
galization itself. If people want pot
legalized, that is perfectly alright.
Pot will just become too expensive
to smoke once the goverment taxes
are installed. Then again, if people
are able to afford $70 for a pair of
suede walking sandals, I’m certain
they will be able to afford $100 for
a quarter bag of pot. I simply judge
the order of priorities that our edu
cated saviors for tomorrow hold.
There are so many more important
things on which we need to concen
trate our efforts. If people want to
make a difference, they need to
help the important causes and not
sit around in the sun listening to
music and dressing the part.
Beth Hackett
senior, English